Hines also received the 2018 John Newton Templeton Outstanding Senior Leader Award at OHIO’s Leadership Awards Gala. The award is given each year in honor of John Newton Templeton, an 1828 alum of Ohio University and the first African-American student to graduate from the institution.

Hines attributes part of her success to the outstanding instruction and assistance she received as an OHIO undergraduate. As she considers the type of medicine she would like to practice, including anesthesia, surgery, oncology, psychiatry, and family medicine, she notes that her strong role models at OHIO have helped her identify her areas of interest.

“My biochemistry professor, Dr. Elizabeth Crockett, statistics professor and adviser Dr. Susan Tice-Alicke, and my research advisor from OU-COM, Dr. Elizabeth Beverly, have been major sources of inspiration at Ohio University. I also had amazing mentors in the Student National Medical Association at OU-HCOM , who are current medical students—Alyssa Gerth, Alicia Rodgers, and Morgan Jivens—and they really helped me along my journey tremendously.”

Hines also explains that the guidance she has received from job shadowing and mentorship relationships has been a key part of her professionalization.

“I came to college after spending my [high school] senior project shadowing in the Department of Anesthesia [at the Cleveland Clinic], so that was my motivation all throughout college. I shadowed an amazing African American female anesthesiologist, Dr. Coveda Stewart, who really inspired me to stay on the path and become a physician,” Hines explains.

Bringing Quality Care to Underserved Areas

In particular, Hines plans to work in an underserved area once she completes medical school. “I am interested in providing quality care to people of diverse backgrounds,” she notes. “I am also interested in health disparities and research in medicine concerning health disparities.”

Hines’ family has been a key source of support and encouragement in her journey to medical school.

“I am beyond grateful that my parents and family have supported my dream of becoming a physician,” she remarks. “My family and community have been a major source of inspiration for my passion for medicine because of the health disparities and negative health outcomes that I have witnessed in my family and community.”

‘My Dream Is Attainable’

Because mentorship has been such a crucial part of Hines’s education, she also plans to begin a mentorship program of her own once she becomes a physician. Her program would particularly seek to match minority medical students with experts in the field.

“I have learned a lot from my mentors who are physicians: Dr. Rebecca Grant (a family medicine physician at OSU Wexner Medical Center) and Dr. Coveda Stewart. I can’t imagine how difficult this journey would have been without them. Unfortunately, I know many students lack guidance on the realistic steps to becoming a physician, so many of them give up on the process all together. Mentoring is important to me,” she explains.

Grant and Stewart are two of many mentors who have helped Hines keep her goals at the forefront of her mind.

“One of my mentors, Lakia Young, told me that […] you can learn a lot of things, but work ethic is something that can’t be taught. Mrs. Young and Dr. [Rebecca] Grant have always pushed me to be more confident in my abilities, and they frequently remind me of the fact that my dream is attainable,” Hines explains.

Hines has also served in key leadership positions on campus that allowed her, in turn, to serve as a mentor to others. During her junior and senior years as an OHIO undergraduate, Hines served as President of the Minority Association of Pre-Health Students, which helped keep her motivated and focused on the importance of serving others.

“[Being President] really pushed me to keep going on my toughest days because I knew that people were looking up to me as a role model, and my success influenced their success,” Hines notes.

Her work with MAPS also allowed her to work closely with OU-HCOM, which she describes as “always having been a school that I knew that I would apply to.” Hines particularly appreciates the collegial, encouraging atmosphere that is a hallmark of OU-HCOM.

“OU-HCOM is truly a family, and they support one another and really push each other to succeed. The Student National Medical Association chapter at OU-HCOM always willingly works with MAPS and mentored us, and I valued that,” she remarks.

Summer Scholars Program

In Summer 2018, Hines also participated in OU-HCOM’s Summer Scholars program, which she describes as “an amazing experience” and one that made her “a much better person.”

Participating in the rigorous Summer Scholars program, which was a crucial step in Hines’s application and admission to OU-HCOM, helped her gain confidence in her academic abilities. After completing the program, she felt more certain than ever that she can accomplish her goal of becoming a physician.

“In Summer Scholars, we were able to dissect a cadaver as a team. Holding a human heart and the human brain brought tears to my eyes,” she recalls. “The human body is so complex and interesting to me, and the fact that I get the opportunity to learn about that complexity with the hopes of helping my future patients reach their optimum health is just breathtaking to me.”